Only make sense Siemens is gearing up for an acquisition. The Euro has buying power in US based companies. ABB's acquisition of Baldor Electric Company even though it was in Swiss Francs show European companies are shopping over here.. Farance's Total recently made a Billion dollar investment in the Solar industry. GE recently said it was spending 600 million dollars manufacturing thin solar cells. I'll speculate, in time, Siemens makes a pick in the power conversion market. Solar is untimely and out of favor right now. PWER looks cheap to me based on ttm data. I expect earnings going forward to reflect a slow down in solar spending. IMO-The stock however has the chance of getting even cheaper based on my last statement.
DEALTALK-Siemens moots floating up to 75 pct of Osram
Wed May 4, 2011 4:56am EDT
By Marilyn Gerlach and Jens Hack
FRANKFURT/MUNICH, May 4 (Reuters) - Siemens has mooted floating up to 75 percent of Osram if investor demand is strong, in what would be one of Europe's biggest stock market listings this year.
Siemens executives have told analysts the German industrial conglomerate plans to float between 50 percent and 75 percent of the world's second largest lighting maker after Philips (PHG.AS), one source familiar with the planned initial public offering (IPO) said.
"We want to float the majority of Osram but we at the same time want to be an anchor investor in Osram," Siemens Chief Executive Peter Loescher told Reuters Insider TV on Wednesday.
"The process has kicked off and everything is according to plan," he said. CFO Joe Kaeser added that Siemens will mandate the banks for the Osram IPO shortly.
Siemens has said it is looking to complete an IPO of Osram, which analysts estimate to be worth as much as 7 billion euros ($10.3 billion), in the European autumn of 2011 and remain a major long-term shareholder thereafter. [ID:nWEA13040]
"If Siemens finds there is appetite for 75 percent, then they'd list 75 percent. But the history of Siemens is to do things in slow steps. Even just taking the decision to list Osram took a very, very long time," one analyst said, who declined to be named.
Analysts estimate that Osram could be floated at 11.5 times 2012 earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). That compares with a current valuation of Philips Lighting of 10 times 2012 EBIT. Operationally, the group is on track, Loescher said. "Osram just had the best quarter. They are performing very well relative to their competitors," he said.
The IPO of Osram could come alongside with chemicals group Evonik [EVON.UL] and shipper Hapag-Lloyd [HPLG.UL], which may float after the summer break, several bankers familiar with the processes said.
Evonik's enterprise value is seen at more than 20 billion euros while media reports have put the value of Hapag-Lloyd at 3.0-3.5 billion.
Analysts said an IPO in the autumn would require the banks given the mandate to write the research note in August in time for marketing purposes, which means Siemens needs to award the mandates to the banks by June at the latest.Banks likely to win the IPO mandates are Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, bankers and analysts said.
reuters.com |
